Another dead fox in Monroe County leaves behind orphaned young and that's putting a strain on a local wildlife center.
Fox and other animals are being brought to the Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center in Hamilton Township with gunshot wounds.
And many of those animals aren't currently in season.
The end result is the orphaned babies are causing the nonprofit to be stretched too thin.
Fox babies seem to be multiplying at Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center but the reason is disturbing. The latest two kits recently arrived because their mother had been shot in the head and did not survive.
Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center Co-Executive Director Susan Downing says, "What was most devastating is they didn’t even check to see if they killed her so for two days she was suffering."
An East Stroudsburg homeowner saw the fox not doing well for two days and called the center. Those in charge reported the incident to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The fox hunting season ended February 17th.
Downing says, "We’re not against hunting. It’s that you do it responsibly and that you don’t, there’s no reason to cause suffering."
We’re told 90 percent of the orphaned kits coming in had a mother that was shot or poisoned. But there are other humane ways to deter wildlife from your property and it’s quite easy when it comes to a fox.
Downing says, "There’s coyote urine, you can either buy it in liquid or you can buy it in pellets. And if you don’t want to deal with the liquid, there’s pellets. You do the perimeter of your sheds, because they usually go under sheds or the perimeter of your property regularly."
Not only is it illegal to hunt foxes right now, but each baby comes in costs the nonprofit 500 dollars to raise and release. And right now, they have 19.
Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center Co-Executive Director Janine Tancredi says, "We vaccinate all of our RVS species when they come in, then again at their six week interval and then again before they leave. That in combination with the formula and the food is about $500 per fox."
Not to mention the volunteers that go into that care. And those volunteers each need the special qualification of having a rabies vaccination.
Tancredi says, "We have a decent amount of volunteers but we have very few RVS volunteers so right now we are overrun with fox and raccoons and we don’t have a lot of RVS people so that is why our staff is working 12-15 hours a day."
You can help with donations or becoming a vaccinated volunteer. And the wildlife center wants you to know its always available for questions when it comes to ridding your property of an animal without causing harm.